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Charles Cogswell
Charles Cogswell was a student at Shimer College in the early Seminary period, attending from 1862 to 1863. He later became an eminent homeopathic physician and professor of obstetrics in Iowa. Profiled *in Bibliographical cyclopaedia of homoeopathic physicians and surgeons, p. 94: *:Cogswell, Charles Herbert, M.D., of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, was born in the village of Le Raysville, Bradford County, Pennsylvania, August 14, 1844. Seven years later (in 1851) his parents removed to Carroll county, Illinois; a toilsome journey in those days, before the advent ol railroads. The family with their household good* were transported in wagons over the prairies and through sloughs of which the pioneers of those days have a " desponding" acquaintance and recollection. There, in the village of Lanark, as he grew older, he assisted his father Charles (for whom he was named) in his labors as an " operative mason" during the summer, and in winter attended the village school, where he was prepared to enter Mt. Carroll Seminary, an institution of learning of more than a local reputation. A two years' course of dilligent study qualified him to become a "speculative mason" and to enter upon the study of medicine, to which profession he was destined to devote his later years, and become a teacher of repute in his profession as well as instructor in the science of Freemasonry. *:He entered Hahnemann Medical College of Chicago and graduated therefrom in the year 1866. In March of the same year, he entered the office of Dr. Baker, of Moline, and began the practice of medicine after the system of Hahnemann. Six montns later he was admitted as a partner with his maternal grandfather, L. C. Belding, M.D., at Morrison, Illinois. In 1868 he removed to Clinton, Iowa, continuing alone the practice of his profession. Ten years later (1878) he removed to Cedar Rapids, where he has since resided and has built up a large and successful practice. *:He took an active part in the organization of the Homoeopathic Medical Society of Iowa, and was elected vice-president in 1870, and president in 1887. *:In 1886 he was appointed lecturer on Diseases of Children in the Homoeopathic Medical Department of the State University, at Iowa City, and the following year (1887) elected to a full professorship, and assigned the chair of Obstetrics and Diseases of Children and later to Obstetrics and Diseases of Women. To the proper discharge of this high trust Dr. Cogswell devotes himself assiduously, and has won the success his merits deserve. *:Dr. Cogswell is a member, and has twice been elected Grand Dictator, of the Knights of Honor, and represented the Grand Body three times in the Supreme Lodge—at Chicago, Philadelphia, and Providence. He is also Grand Protector of the Knights and Ladies of Honor, and has twice represented that body in the Supreme Lodge—at St. Louis and Chicago. *:But the crowning glory of his successful career remains to be told. It is not meet that man should be alone, and so our most excellent Master mason thought, when in the summer of 1869 (aged twenty-five), at Morrison, Illinois, he married Miss Mary Wilkinson, daughter of the Hon. W. S. Wilkinson. This estimable lady has proved herself not only a helpmeet in the discharge of her home duties, but, herself a graduate of Women's Homoeopathic Medical College, by her knowledge and tender sympathies she has proved woman's fitting office for such high and holy professional duties as ever devolve upon the family physician. *in "Dr. Charles Cogswell Dies at Cedar Rapids", in Omaha World Herald, 1937-11-25, p. 3: *:Dr. Charles Cogswell Dies at Cedar Rapids *:Pasadena, Cal., Nov. 24 (U.P.)— Dr. Charles Herbert Cogswell, 95, who for 65 years practiced medicine at Cedar Rapids, Ia., died here Wednesday at the home of his son, Dr. Charles H. Cogswell, Jr. Another son, Dr. John W. Cogswell, lives at York, Pa. *in Robert Coman Cogswell Family Tree Category:Physicians Category:Freemasons